“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.”

Every other world religion, every faith is all about our efforts to get to God. God sits rightly on his majestic throne and we are to work and scrape to hopefully be worthy to get there by the time that we die. Maybe we’ll make it and maybe we won’t. A life of constant striving and uncertainty and fear. Our God, in Jesus, is the only one to dare to go the other way!

Think of it, eternal God leaves eternity; God-beyond-time confines himself to the tyranny of time and space! And not just that but Infinite-God chooses to confine his absolute vastness to a tiny human body, with a belly and a bladder and hair and hormones.

REFLECTION :

Morning Pause: As we begin the day, read Phil. 2:5-8 above. Ask God to give you new eyes, to surprise you with something you had never seen or thought of before. Enter the day with the hope and expectation that He’ll do it. Be looking.

Afternoon Pause: What are some of the thoughts and ideas you have had as you let this scripture, this truth have some space to rattle around in you?